After Yuan Li finished speaking, he quickly walked away without looking back, and Su Layer saw that everyone who had something to do had already left, and said: "It seems that the answer is very clear, this road is going to become uneven, not suitable for business travel, now we might as well go and see the specific situation of the Southern Expeditionary Army." [Ran^Text^Library] []”

This proposal aroused the interest of Zhang Xiao and Zhang Yao, and they could indeed go to see what the Southern Expeditionary Army was like now, believing that after this defeat, they should learn a lesson, so the three of them left Xiahou Mansion and walked towards the city gate.

On the main road to Xuchang, a large number of people have gathered here, and the stalls set up on weekdays have been dispersed, and the guards in the city have established a separation belt, leaving an empty passage in the middle of the road for the southern expeditionary army returning to the city to pass, but they do not seem to have arrived yet.

Zhang Xiao and the three of them didn't want to squeeze into the crowded crowd to wait for the arrival of the Southern Expeditionary Army, so they followed Su Layer to a teahouse, and through her connections, they entered a single room with a better view on the second floor and waited quietly.

Su Layer looked at the chaotic scene below and said, "I heard that there are 100,000 soldiers in this southern expedition, I don't know how many will come back this time?"

Although Zhang Yao was very disappointed with this southern expedition, he still said with confidence: "Even if it is a defeat, but Liu Bei's soldiers and horses are not many, I believe that this southern expeditionary army should not suffer much losses." ”

Zhang Xiao and Su Layer had been discussing with great interest the number of people returning from the Southern Expeditionary Army, while Zhang Xiao was lying on the window and looking at the direction of the city gate, for him, this lively scene was the most interesting.

It didn't take long for the crowd below to become more noisy, and Zhang Xiao also heard a large number of horses' hooves, it seemed that the Southern Expeditionary Army had arrived, Zhang Xiao said excitedly: "Coming, coming, they have returned here." ”

Zhang Jiao and Su Layer heard Zhang Xiao's excited voice, stopped chatting, and also came to the window to look in the direction of the city gate, only to see a team of cavalry quickly come into view, galloping away at a very fast speed.

This team of cavalry is numerous, all the people are in good spirits, the formation is orderly, there is no sense of decadence of defeat at all, but there is a kind of arrogance of the winner, the name of this army can be said to be known to everyone, no one knows, they are the elite tiger and leopard cavalry under Cao Cao.

I saw the tiger and leopard cavalry passing one team after another, Zhang Xiao visually estimated that there were about four or five thousand people, it seems that although the battle was lost this time, but the tiger and leopard cavalry did not have any loss, so it had little impact on the overall strength of the Han army.

Finally, when all the tiger and leopard cavalry left Zhang Xiao's field of vision, the next person to come over should be the main infantry of the Southern Expeditionary Army, that is, the unit with the heaviest losses this time.

The speed of the infantry was slow, and they waited for a while to finally wait for their arrival, but it was not the scene that Zhang Xiao and Zhang Xiao expected to imagine, because they were also the same as the tiger and leopard cavalry, full of energy and high spirits, and there was no trace of defeat at all, which made Zhang Xiao and Zhang Xiao puzzled, and it didn't look like they were intentional.

At the front of the infantry on horseback led by the chief general of the Southern Expeditionary Army, Xiahou Tang and Yu Ban, Li Dian and others, only to see them with a high bow, comfortable brows, slowly passing by the street, the follow-up infantry also neatly lined up in a phalanx, walking the same pace, followed by several generals, if it wasn't for the fact that everyone had known in advance that they had lost the battle, they thought they were going to fight now.

The main force of the infantry was about forty or fifty thousand people, and it took nearly half an hour to pass through, and none of the soldiers had a sense of decadence, and they were physically sound and powerful, which made Zhang Xiao and the three of them very puzzled.

When all the infantry had passed, and Zhang Xiao and the three of them were about to go back to understand the specific situation, they suddenly heard the crowd on the street exploding again, and they were immediately very puzzled, all kinds of troops of the Southern Expeditionary Army had already passed, could there be anything else going on?

So Zhang Xiao and the three of them came to the window again, looked into the distance curiously, and it didn't take long for an incomprehensible scene to come into view, only to see that it was a cavalry team that came, but both the people and the horses were scarred, all bandages on their bodies, and they walked forward with their heads hanging weakly.

This really attracted the attention of Zhang Xiao and the others, and now they look like people who have lost a battle, and the generals in front of them are also scarred, and their armor is also very damaged, but I don't know why Xiahoudun arranged the order of entering the city like this, completely ignoring the wounded, and leaving them to return to the barracks first, as if they were not in a camp.

Now the soldiers who have entered the city are completely different from the soldiers who have left, the lack of arms and legs in these soldiers can be seen everywhere, and it is almost impossible to find soldiers who are not injured, and the cavalry is followed by the infantry, and the generals in front are also covered in scars, bandages, and they are all people that Zhang Xiao has never seen, which is also very strange to him, the generals of the imperial court have almost seen them themselves, who are these generals?

Now there are about six or seven thousand soldiers and horses passing by, marching at a very slow speed like an old woman crossing the street, Zhang Xiao is not interested in looking at it anymore, and said: "Why do they want to enter the city separately, is it necessary to protect face like this after losing the battle?"

Zhang Yao looked at the miserable situation of these soldiers and said: "I don't think things are so simple, General Xiahou doesn't have any scars on his body, and even the traces of battle on his armor are almost negligible, but on the other hand, these generals are like they have encountered a desperate struggle, and it stands to reason that they shouldn't." ”

This situation also aroused Su Layer's suspicions, and said to Zhang Xiao and Zhang Yao: "I also think this matter is a little strange, I have seen a few of these generals, they are all retired old ministers, I don't know how they are in the Southern Expeditionary Army now, I have to go back to find out what is the situation in the court." ”

Zhang Yao also thought the same way, and said: "Okay, I also want to see what news Xia Houen and they will have later, and we will talk about it when we have time in the future." ”

After Su Layer replied a few words, he got up and left, Zhang Xiao and Zhang Xiao also returned to Xiahou Mansion, but Zhang Xiao didn't dare to be interested in any implication in this matter, he only knew one thing, that is, there would definitely be a big war in the near future, and he would soon have the opportunity to take away the Qingyu Sword.

Zhang Xiao and Zhang Jiao returned to Xiahou Mansion and found that there were many fewer people here, and the remaining soldiers were also busy.

This news is a little too fast for Zhang Xiao and Zhang Yao, Xiahoudun's army has just been defeated, and now he immediately organizes an attack, which is inevitably a little too irrational and too arrogant.

In order to understand the situation in more detail, Zhang Xiao and Zhang Yao only learned from Xia Houen, but he has not come back so far, so the two had to come to the school and wait for Xia Houen to return.

Such a major event happened, Zhang Xiao and Zhang Yao didn't know when Xia Houen was going to be in the council, so they took advantage of their leisure to come to the practice room to practice pranayama, and it was not until it was close to noon that Xia Houen came here in a hurry, because he knew that Zhang Xiao and Zhang Yao must be waiting here for their news at this time.

As soon as Zhang Xiao sensed Xia Houen, he immediately stopped pranayama, and when he came in, he hurriedly asked: "Ziyun, what is the situation when the Southern Expeditionary Army comes back today, why is the army still divided into two groups, how do I feel that things are not as simple as defeat." ”

Xia Houen knelt on the ground, gasping for breath, it seemed that he should have been running all the way, and said, "I want to say too much, wait for me to speak slowly." ”

Xia Houen's current appearance was almost like he was about to lose his breath, and he gasped for a while before he said: "Since the prime minister assassinated Dong Zhuo back then, whether it was raising troops to fight against Dong Zhuo or conquering Eryuan, Lu Bu has always been a personal soldier, so this time he has already planned to capture Jingzhou, but now as the prime minister, he needs a reason to get rid of the notoriety of manipulating imperial power." ”

Listening to Xia Houen's explanation, that is to say, the defeat of this southern expedition was actually premeditated, Zhang Xiao and Zhang Yao felt that it was really the same as they guessed, and this matter really had a hidden connotation, so Zhang Yao asked: "All this southern expedition is just a play, so that Prime Minister Cao Cheng can personally lead the army south?"

Xia Houen continued: "This is not necessarily the case, in fact, the prime minister's leading troops is still secondary, the real main reason is three points, one is to spy on the extent of the fortifications in Jingzhou, the second is to see what is happening in Eastern Wu, and the third is the most important thing, that is, it is necessary to fight a defeat, try to consume the number of soldiers of the pro-imperial faction, so as not to fight against the Han clan in the future, they will defect. ”